Green Wins Second NCAA Title With A Mad Dash To The Finish With 10 Men On His Heels; Ja'Kobe Tharp, Nathaniel Ezekiel Run No. 3 Fastest Times In Hurdles Finals; Kentucky's Carli Makarawu Blazes 19.84 200 Win From Lane 9; James Corrigan Adds To 'Steeple U' Legacy

By Oliver Hinson of DyeStat

Ken Martinez and Tim Healy Photos

INTERVIEWS | RESULTS

EUGENE — Nathan Green knew he was in hostile territory from the time he started his warmup. As he ran on the streets of south Eugene, the Washington senior heard some “dirty words” yelled by onlookers — he suspects they were Oregon fraternity brothers.

Green didn’t let it phase him. He charged down the home stretch in the men’s 1,500 meters, putting a Husky atop the podium at Hayward Field for the second straight year and giving the program its fourth straight title in the event.

“This is the Dawg House,” Green said, referring to Hayward. “We come here to do business, we come here to win, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”

Green closed in 51.5 seconds for a time of 3:47.26, capitalizing on a tactical race that closely mirrored Wednesday’s heats.

Both the heats and the final revealed something clear about the state of NCAA men’s mid-distance running: everyone and their mother thinks they have the best kick in the field, and they’re not afraid to put it to the test. Green said he and his coach, Andy Powell, knew that he was going to need to run the last 100 meters in about 12.5 seconds in order to win. In fact, Powell yelled at Green to “jump!” as he was running down the back stretch on the last lap, encouraging him to do whatever it took to win.

Green did not end up diving for the win, but he was prepared to. He leaned so far forward that he somersaulted onto the track after crossing the line.

“It’s not like I’m racing high schoolers,” Green said. “I’m racing the best in the NCAA, and they are very much able to close with me.”

With about 80 meters left, Green had plenty of open track, and he pounced. UNC’s Ethan Strand, the collegiate record holder in the indoor mile, gave him a late scare, but he ran out of room. The finish was one of the tightest in any 1,500 race in recent memory; all but one runner in the field ran under 3:48, and the top 11 were separated by just 0.68 seconds.

“It was a little bit slower, it was a little bit messy, it was a little bit this, it was a little bit that,” Green said, “but it all just came down to that final 80 meters, and it was just a battle of wills.”

This was Green’s last race in a Washington jersey. He said that he wanted to go out like his teammate Joe Waskom, who beat Oregon’s Elliott Cook to win the 1,500 at last year’s outdoor championships — and received thunderous boos in doing so. Green didn’t hear any boos on Friday, but he still felt like he carried on the Husky legacy.

“It means a lot,” Green said. “That makes Washington the most dominant 1,500 and mile program in history, and anybody who says otherwise can go check the facts, because I’m telling you right now, we are.”

After Green’s win, BYU’s James Corrigan added some more fireworks to the day, running a sensational time in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with an 8:16.41 performance. Corrigan is the fifth BYU steeeplchase champion, and joins recent winner Kenneth Rooks, who won it two years ago. Corrigan and Rooks made the U.S. Olympic team together last year.

Corrigan said after the semifinal that he thought it would take running the World Championship qualifying standard of 8:15.00 to win this race, and he was close; if it weren’t for a relatively slow start, he may have dipped under that mark.

Corrigan stayed calm in the middle of the pack for most of the race, only starting to move with about two laps to go. At the bell lap, he was nearly two seconds behind Louisville’s Geoffrey Kirwa, who was ranked first in the country going into this race. The Olympian would not be denied, though; Corrigan overtook Kirwa after the final water jump and kept his lead through the line, avenging his ninth place finish in last year’s final.

“I felt confident that at that pace, which was already hot, anybody who made a move was still gonna pay in the last lap,” Corrigan said. “I knew that I just needed to keep the string short enough, even if there was a gap, to where I could feel confident in the last lap. The string never got too long.”

Auburn’s JaKobe Tharp won the 110-meter hurdles in 13.05, the third-best time in collegiate history behind Grant Holloway and Daniel Roberts in their famous showdown in 2019 in Austin.

Baylor’s Nathaniel Ezekiel clocked another NCAA No. 3 all-time mark in the 400-meter hurdles (47.49) to win by nearly a second. Ezekiel destroyed his previous personal best of 47.86, which he set in the prelims on Wednesday. 

After the hurdles came off the track, Kentucky’s Carli Makarawu kept the excitement going, pulling off a shocker in the 200 meters. He came out of lane 9 to beat Arkansas’ Jordan Anthony, who won the 100 meters, as well as Auburn’s Maka Charamba, who was widely considered the favorite. 

Makarawu was nervous after hearing about his lane draw — he, like most sprinters, would have preferred a middle lane — but a steady, if excessive, prayer regimen carried him through the race.

“I prayed yesterday before I slept,” Makarawu said, “I prayed today in the morning, I prayed before I came to the track with my parents, I prayed again when I ran the 4x100, I prayed again in the bathroom before I ran the 200.”

Makarawu’s prayers were answered; in addition to the win, he set a personal best of 19.84. Charamba finished second in 19.92, recording his second sub-20 performance of the weekend. He also anchored the Tigers to a win in the 4x100 meter relay to kick off the day.

USC’s Garrett Kaalund finished third, followed by Anthony in fourth.

Following the 200, Oklahoma State’s Brian Musau ran 13:20.59 to win the 5,000 meters, which played out much differently than the 1,500. Through the first mile, it appeared to be another tactical race — they came through in about 4:30 — but Rocky Hansen of Wake Forest decided he had seen enough of this weekend’s early race jogging, so he quickly brought down the pace, leading the field through 63-second laps for nearly the remainder of the race.

“I’m proud of me being decisive and not hesitating to take the lead and just speed it up,” Hansen said. “Going into the race, I wanted it to be fast.”

Musau took the lead in the penultimate lap and held off a challenge by New Mexico’s Habtom Samuel, who finished second in the 10,000 meters on Wednesday. Samuel closed in 53 seconds two days ago, but he didn’t have quite as much left in the tank for this race. He closed in 56 seconds, as did Musau.

“For me, I always trust myself with my kick,” Musau said. “It was not that easy… I was very careful with everything I was doing in that race.”

For a moment, it looked as if Villanova’s Marco Langon had made the deciding move — he took the lead with about 200 meters left — but that proved to be too early of a kick. He faded over the last 50 meters, finishing third behind Musau and Samuel in 13:21.17.

Alabama's Samuel Ogazi, a Nigerian Olympian, dominated the 400 meters and won in a time of 44.84 seconds. 

To cap off the meet, South Florida won the 4x400 meter relay, running 3:00.42. The Bulls desperately needed a strong performance to salvage any kind of positivity from the weekend; they had come in as championship contenders, but they ended up finishing tied for 14th due to poor performances in the individual sprint events. In spite of that, they were happy to be the last winners of the meet.

“If you don’t win the championship, win the last race,” the Bulls’ Alixavier Monfries said, “because everybody watches the last race.”